City man charged in Taunton Green slashing

Monday

Aug 4, 2014 at 11:38 AMAug 5, 2014 at 7:31 AM

Witnesses say a fight led to a slashing outside a Taunton Green apartment building. Some bystanders told police a group of men were standing around “giving each other Ric Flair chops” when they were assaulted by a 61-year-old with a razor.

Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer @Enterprise_Marc

TAUNTON — A city man was rushed to a Rhode Island Hospital after a slashing in downtown Taunton on Sunday night.

Taunton police arrested a 61-year-old man, charging him with assault with intent to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Bernard Kellogg, of 9 Taunton Green, allegedly slashed the victim in the neck, leaving the man with a “severe laceration” that left a trail of blood from a white door at 9 Taunton Green to the yellow curb outside Santander Bank at 12 Taunton Green.

Police said the victim fled the scene of the attack on foot.

Taunton police were initially dispatched to a reported fight at 9 Taunton Green, after receiving numerous 911 calls describing a melee between Kellogg and a group of four men.

Taunton police talked to witnesses, who said Kellogg used a “straight razor” to slash the victim.

One witness among the group of four men told police that they had been “horsing around” and “giving each other Ric Flair chops” when one of the doors facing the street opened and a man began yelling at them.

The man, later identified as Kellogg, yelled at the four to quiet down and leave, before Kellogg charged at the victim holding the razor and sliced across the man’s neck, police said.

The witness stated that he and the others pulled the victim away from Kellogg and they all ran toward Court Street, before realizing the victim was bleeding from a deep laceration to the left side of his neck.

They then sat down on a park bench while applying pressure to the wound, before paramedics transported the victim by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital.

Other witnesses told investigators that Kellogg was “jumped” by the group, before returning to his apartment covered in blood, according to the police report.

Police said they later interviewed Kellogg and that a blood-soaked blue-collared shirt was hanging on a chair in plain view, although officers could not locate the razor or any other cutting instrument used in the alleged assault.

Kellogg was expected to be arraigned in Taunton District Court on Monday.

On Monday afternoon, the Taunton District Court’s chief court officer said Kellogg was at a hospital in Boston undergoing an evaluation, without providing any further details. The arraignment was not held at the Taunton court on Monday.

At Kellogg’s apartment building, the property owner Gunnar Hexum said that he has been trying to remove Kellogg as a resident of the building prior to the slashing incident.

“Good, he should be in jail, and stay there,” said Hexum, when informed that Kellogg was arrested for the alleged stabbing outside his downtown property.

The 9 Taunton Green location, where Hexum runs the Massachusetts School of Information Technology on the ground floor, was also the site of the city’s eighth fatal heroin overdose of the year, which took place in mid-March (there have been at least 10 fatal overdoses in the city this year). At the time, Hexum said that homeless people were taking advantage of the female victim and were staying overnight at her apartment. Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. commented in the aftermath of the fatal overdose, urging Hexum to take responsibility and saying that the entire building has been a problem and a drain on resources.

On Monday, Hexum said that he was doing his best to deal with the problem and was trying to evict Kellogg.

“The tenants are the tenants,” Hexum said. “Their behavior is their behavior. When it comes to violating the terms of the lease here, we’ve been trying our best to get Bernard out.”